Rat Bastard Protective Association
| Bruce Conner | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Bruce Guldner Conner November 18, 1933 McPherson, Kansas |
| Died | July 7, 2008 (aged 74) San Francisco |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Nebraska University, University of Colorado |
| Known for | Experimental film, assemblage, sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, conceptual pranks |
| Notable work | (always written in CAPITALS): A MOVIE (film), RAT BASTARD (assemblage) |
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.
Born in McPherson, Kansas, Conner was raised in Wichita, Kansas, attended Wichita University (now Wichita State University), and received his B.F.A in Art at Nebraska University in 1956. Conner then received a scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where he studied for a semester. He then attended the University of Colorado on scholarship; also there was Jean Sandstedt, whom he had met at Nebraska and who would become his wife. On September 1, 1957, the two married and immediately flew to San Francisco. There, Conner quickly assimilated into the city's famous Beat community.
Conner worked in a variety of mediums from an early age. His first solo gallery show in New York City took place in 1956 and featured paintings. His first solo shows in San Francisco, in 1958 and 1959, featured paintings, drawings, prints, collages, assemblages, and sculpture. The Designer's Gallery in San Francisco held Bruce's third solo show. The gallery featured black panels which set off his drawings. One of his paintings, "Venus" was displayed in the gallery window. The painting showed a nude inside a form representing a clam shell. A local policeman confronted the gallery owners to get it removed, "as children in the neighborhood might see the painting." The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)stood behind the gallery's right to display it, and the matter never became an issue.
Conner first attracted widespread attention with his moody, nylon-shrouded assemblages, complex amalgams of found objects such as women's stockings, bicycle wheels, broken dolls, fur, fringe, costume jewelry, and candles, often combined with collaged or painted surfaces. Erotically charged and tinged with echoes of both the Surrealist tradition and of San Francisco's Victorian past, these works established Conner as a leading figure within the international assemblage "movement." Generally, these works do not have precise meanings, but some of them suggest what Conner saw as the discarded beauty of modern America, the deforming impact of society on the individual, violence against women, and consumerism. Social commentary and dissension remained a common theme among his later works.
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